Shooting on a Panasonic HPX171

[thejellygraph]

Hi everyone,

I'm a first year university student, and VERY new to film making! We've been set an assignment to create a short (2-4 minute) fiction film, essentially to prove that we have in fact taken in what they've been teaching us. We've been given quite a strict brief and a small list of kit to work with, that is, a basic 3 point lighting kit, some radio mics, a boom and a Panasonic HPX171 (inc. tripod obviously!). I'm the one who has been assigned to shoot it and I was looking for some advice.

The 171 shoots a very clear, crisp image, but because of its small sensor, struggles to achieve a shallow DoF - a look which I would quite like to go for with this film. Does anyone have any advice on how I can create this with this sort of camera? I've toyed with the idea of the 35mm adapter, but I'm not sure the department has them/if we'd be allowed to use them, so I'm working on the basis that we probably won't have one.

I'm just looking for the film achieve that filmic look.. A lot of forums I have read have said that is often created by lighting - can anyone comment on this? Do they just mean 'good' lighting (depending on what the scene requires) or are there particular colour temperatures that might give it a more 'filmic' look. I know that a lot of this can be manipulated in post, but I'd rather get the raw footage looking as good as possible and just tweak in post.

Many thanks for any help.

 

[Kniis]

Hi, jellygraph!

What seperates the so called "video look" from a more filmic look is indeed the lighting of the shot. A shallow DOF will help you, but to be honest the shallow DOF effect is just a cheap trick to make your film seem more expensive and professional. I'm in no way bashing vimeo but take a look at many of the videos there and you'll notice they are all about shooting DSLR cameras at f/1.2 to get as much DOF as possible, just because then they wont have to think about compositing all the other elements in the shot.

Anyway, if you want a shallow DOF on the 171 I would recommend getting like a 100mm lens or something, the longer focal length you got, the shallower the DOF will be. I'm guessing you'll be using a zoom lens so basically just zoom in as much as you can if you want a shallow DOF - keep in mind that this will also give an effect where the background will appear much closer than it might be, this is often used to make a character seem locked in or claustrofobic or whatnot.

As for lighting your scene, are you familiar with the 3 point lighting? Basically you want a backlight, a fill light and a key light. (The keylight will be the source where light actually strikes from in your scene (i.e the window) a fill light is used to compliment the key light so that you dont get too much contrast in your image, while the backlight is there to separate your object from the background).

Hope this helps (even though it might be a bit late - sorry I just signed up!)

 

[jax_rox]

Zoom all the way in and open the aperture as much as you can, and that will help some way into getting a shallow[er] DOF. Obviously you'll have to move backwards in the space to achieve the same shot size zoomed in.

Lighting is a huge part of it, but the thing with lighting is that great lighting tends to come from experience - placing lights yourself and seeing what they do, observing those more experienced with their lighting setups and observing what it creates..

When it comes to cinematic scene lighting, my first suggestions would be:
Come up with a concept of the mood you want to portray. What colours does the mood lend to? What sort of lighting styles (ie; mysterious might be dark and shadowy, whereas fun might be bright and 'happy'). Come up with an idea of how you want the scene to look. From there start thinking about colours and colour temperatures, and also about light motivation. Light doesn't always have to be motivated from somewhere tangible, but it can help to think about it like that.

 

[thejellygraph]

Hi, jellygraph!

What seperates the so called "video look" from a more filmic look is indeed the lighting of the shot. A shallow DOF will help you, but to be honest the shallow DOF effect is just a cheap trick to make your film seem more expensive and professional. I'm in no way bashing vimeo but take a look at many of the videos there and you'll notice they are all about shooting DSLR cameras at f/1.2 to get as much DOF as possible, just because then they wont have to think about compositing all the other elements in the shot.

Anyway, if you want a shallow DOF on the 171 I would recommend getting like a 100mm lens or something, the longer focal length you got, the shallower the DOF will be. I'm guessing you'll be using a zoom lens so basically just zoom in as much as you can if you want a shallow DOF - keep in mind that this will also give an effect where the background will appear much closer than it might be, this is often used to make a character seem locked in or claustrofobic or whatnot.

As for lighting your scene, are you familiar with the 3 point lighting? Basically you want a backlight, a fill light and a key light. (The keylight will be the source where light actually strikes from in your scene (i.e the window) a fill light is used to compliment the key light so that you dont get too much contrast in your image, while the backlight is there to separate your object from the background).

Hope this helps (even though it might be a bit late - sorry I just signed up!)

Thank you so much for this! Not too late at all, we're still in the planning stages (although my group don't seem to want to be cooperating much at the moment!). Fantastic advice. Yes, it's the standard package really. I'll definitely be using this technique in that case. Thanks for advice on the lighting too - as I said I'm very new to it all so I have a feeling this project will teach me a lot!

Zoom all the way in and open the aperture as much as you can, and that will help some way into getting a shallow[er] DOF. Obviously you'll have to move backwards in the space to achieve the same shot size zoomed in.

Lighting is a huge part of it, but the thing with lighting is that great lighting tends to come from experience - placing lights yourself and seeing what they do, observing those more experienced with their lighting setups and observing what it creates..

When it comes to cinematic scene lighting, my first suggestions would be:
Come up with a concept of the mood you want to portray. What colours does the mood lend to? What sort of lighting styles (ie; mysterious might be dark and shadowy, whereas fun might be bright and 'happy'). Come up with an idea of how you want the scene to look. From there start thinking about colours and colour temperatures, and also about light motivation. Light doesn't always have to be motivated from somewhere tangible, but it can help to think about it like that.

Brilliant advice, thanks so much! I think our film will be a 'happy' film, rather than something darker so that definitely gives me a jumping point for thinking about colour temperature.